My husband and I will be attending a convention in Boston in early May of this year. It will be held at the Boston Convention & Exhibition center. The meeting has blocks of rooms at many hotels that are near the convention center (Waterfront) as well as downtown and Back Bay.

Which area would be the best to stay in? Transportation to the conference is not a consideration, since there will be shuttles to the meeting from the hotels.

Also, any specific hotel suggestion?

Thank you,
LSOK

Boston is small, you can really stay in any of those areas and be happy.

The Back Bay would probably be my first choice if all other things are equal. It is in a safe, upscale retail/restaurant area (Newbury Street and Copley Square) and a great area for walking and seeing things.

Do you have a list of hotels?

What is your goal? If all you're doing is attending the conference and returning to the hotel (and get room service) every night, there's no reason to stay anywhere else but the Waterfront next to the Convention Center.

If you plan to skip some parts of the convention and do sightseeing, then "downtown" may be the best as it's closest to the historic core of boston.

If you plan to attend the convention but want to do some shopping afterwards or go out to a nice place for dinner, then Back Bay would be the best, as it's close to plenty of shops and restaurants.

There are not "many" hotels that are near the Convention Center - so they are defining "close" differently than I would. Also want to see the list - then we can pick.

Yes, definitely let us know what your choices are. You many find that staying near the Convention Center will be a little far away from the restaurants and shopping in the Back Bay and other neighborhoods of Boston. Technically, the Convention Center is in South Boston and is somewhat separated from the Financial District ("Downtown") and a good cab's ride away from the Back Bay. There are some restaurants now in that area, and all the hotels have restaurants that are generally pretty good, but the majority of the popular restaurants in Boston are in the Back Bay, South End and Financial District.

It sounds like you will be attending the convention with your husband so your days will be occupied. I don't know the convention, but some that I've attended in other cities have evening activities already organized with transportation. If so, you may want to be near the other people in your group and could easily cab it on your own if you wanted to check out the shopping in the Back Bay. BTW, the new Institute of Contemporay Art is near the Convention Center, if that interests you.

For what it's worth, my DH stayed at the Westin attached to the Convention Center (although we live in the Boston area) and raved about their "heavenly" beds. I've been to functions at that Westin, the Intercontinental and the Boston Harbor on Atlantic Avenue, and they are all really nice hotels.

We stayed at the Westin next to the convention center and loved it...beds and duvet were fab and the corner room was excellent.
New hotel..we got a great deal on Expedia and we parked across the street for free and saved $40 a day...
We walked to downtown Boston & Legal Seafood which was a couple of blocks away along with the transit system.

I recently stayed at the Renaissance in the convention area. The hotel was fine but I honestly did not like the area - too far removed from the action. I enjoy the area around the Copley Center much better. I like the Marriott at Copley...lots to do, connected to the Copley Place.

You may not have a lot of choice other than the blocked hotels unless you move quickly. Early May is graduation for most of the many, many colleges and hotel reservations can be very hard to come by.

If the convention has blocked rooms in Back Bay, I would go there first, followed by Financial District (downtown) and the South Boston Waterfront (different from the Downtown Waterfront) last.

Thanks to everyone for their replies. We booked at the Sheraton Boston through the convention (their rates were $100-$150 less than the hotel websites) and are "wait-listed" at the Hilton. Both of these hotels are in the Back Bay.

I'm still thinking about bidding on Priceline or Hotwire to see if we can get the rate closer to $200 per night. These are both 3-diamond hotels in AAA.

I will be starting another thread about a post meeting adventure. We would like to spend about 3-4 days traveling by car to maybe Cape Cod or ??. We were thinking about taking a train out of Boston and renting a car in a smaller city to begin our travels.

We enjoy beautiful scenery, back roads, (my husband is a photographer) and I would be happy with some great antique stores!

Any Ideas?
thanks, LSOK